The SEC indicated it has not ruled out the possibility of additional civil charges against Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), with which it already settled fraud charges for $550 million related to shoddy practices for its Abacus CDO deals, FOX Business reports.

The Senate Permanent Subcommittee's exhaustive two-year examination of the financial crisis, with a special emphasis on Goldman, led Senator Carl Levin to his stunning, widely publicized conclusion: "in my judgment, Goldman clearly misled their clients and they misled Congress." He has made clear he thinks the Department of Justice should review the evidence with perjury charges against Goldman executives in mind.

The issue turns on the size of the short positions the firm had on residential mortgages. CEO Lloyd Blankfein told the panel the firm had no "net short positions," which the subcommittee thinks was basically a lie.

Regarding additional civil charges, the SEC took a close look at Goldman deals beyond Abacus. No doubt, they have quite a file on the Hudson, Anderson and Timberwolf deals. It looked at a dozen deals in all.

It's unclear if the evidence brought forth by the subcommittee is all that new to SEC lawyers. My guess is it isn't.

The possibility of perjury charges looms as more intriguing. The last thing the Justice Department can do is allow the appearance that the executives are getting away with a public lie to Congress. But a case that turns on parsing semantics may not be worth it. The ball is now in the department's court.

For more:
- here's the FOX Business article

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